Twenty-five percent of Jefferson County high schoolers made a plan to kill themselves in the last year. About 30 tenth and twelfth graders tried to kill themselves.
These and other alarming reports of severe mental health problems among the county’s high schoolers were released as part of the 2021 Healthy Youth Survey conducted by the Washington Department of Health. 354 Jefferson County students participated in the study, which also covers all counties statewide.
Our county’s youth report crushing hopelessness. 36% of tenth graders reported feeling so sad or hopeless that they stopped doing their usual activities. That pall of debilitating malaise rose to 44% among 12th graders. The DOH’s statewide results show that youth sensing no or only slight hope are twice as likely to consider suicide as youth with a moderate to high sense of hope.
83% of 12th graders reported feeling nervous or anxious in the two weeks preceding the survey, and 71% of them were unable to stop worrying in that time period. The numbers for 10th graders are only insignificantly better.
Among 12th graders, 26% reported (24 students) considering suicide during the year, 10% (9 students) reported making a suicide plan, 8% (7-8 students) reported attempting suicide. Among 10th graders, 21% (30 students) reported considering suicide, 25% (36 students) made a suicide plan, and 13% (19 students) reported attempting suicide.
Statewide, according to DOH, substance abuse reporting is down over 2018, but mental health problems are more widespread and severe. The 2021 survey found that statewide 74% of 10th graders reported feeling nervous, anxious, on edge, or not being able to stop or control worrying, 20% reported they seriously considered attempting suicide, 16% reported they made a suicide plan, and 8% reported they attempted suicide in the past 12 months. The rates for planning and attempting suicide by 10th graders are higher in Jefferson County. Jefferson County 12th graders reported considering suicide and attempting suicide also at rates higher than the comparable state rates.
Readers are encouraged to read the Fact Sheets from the survey for Jefferson County high schoolers. Much more data, some broken down by demographics, is available. You may use this link: Healthy Youth Survey 2021. Click on the Fact Sheets link at the top of the page, then select “county” and pull down Jefferson County. From there you can access many fact sheets on mental health, substance abuse and other indicia of teen health. The 134 pages of survey results cover 6th, 8th, 10th and 12th graders.
Dozens of graphs in the Healthy Youth Survey 2021 show detailed analyses of mental health indicators, substance abuse and other well-being factors in our community. This breakdown shows a higher incidence of bullying experienced in Jefferson County as compared to Washington State, at every grade level.
Suicide is the second leading cause of death for Washington teens 15-19 years old, the survey explained, and most youth suicides occur at home. Suicide attempts among children even as young as 9 years old is on the rise. As reported by Hannah Furfaro, a Seattle Times mental health reporter:
“A pair of new national research studies and Washington data help confirm what Marshall and many others are seeing in hospitals across the Pacific Northwest. Use of medications or other poisons to attempt suicide or self-harm are rising among youths as young as 9, and the largest increases are among those ages 10-12. The number of kids in that age group who ingested some type of poisonous medication or other substance to attempt suicide increased by 4.5 times from 2000 to 2020, according to one of the national studies, published in JAMA Pediatrics in March, compared to a 2.4-fold increase among older adolescents.”
The 2021 survey found a slight decrease in drug use that may only be temporary. According to Dr. Maayan Simckes, an epidemiologist with the Washington Department of Health, drug use could well increase as teens go back to more normal lives, which involves being able to gather with peers, and potentially partying.
Jefferson County’s Board of Health Response and Action
The 2021 data is nothing new. At its April 2019 meeting, Dr. Tom Locke, then the public health officer, told the Jefferson County Board of Health that the 2018 Healthy Youth Survey results “showed concerning findings in the youth mental health category.” At the following month’s meeting, team members from the Substance Abuse Prevention Program at the Health Department were supposed to provide “a more in depth look at the data from the Healthy Youth Survey.” (Reporting on substance abuse among high schoolers was also cause for concern.)
The Board of Health never returned to the mental health crisis among Jefferson County high schoolers. Instead of considering data that was supposed to be provided by the Substance Abuse Prevention Program, the Board spent its meeting time discussing nuclear disarmament. In the past three-plus years since the county’s public health officer informed the Board of Health of “concerning findings” about youth mental health, the subject has never been an agenda item. The 2021 Healthy Youth Survey results were released in March of this year but have not been discussed by the Board of Health.
The members of the Board of Health are County Commissioners Greg Brotherton, Heidi Eisenhour and Kate Dean; Libby Wennstrom, Port Townsend City Council Member; Kees Kolff, Public Hospital District Commissioner; Sheila Westerman, Citizen-at-Large; and Denis Stearns, Citizen-at-Large.
Jim Scarantino was the editor and founder of Port Townsend Free Press. He is happy in his new role as just a contributor writing on topics of concern to him. He spent the first 25 years of his professional life as a trial attorney, then launched an online investigative news website that broke several national stories. He is also the author of three crime novels. He resides in Jefferson County. See our "About" page for more information.
The survey is disconcerting, and the apparent disregard by the BOH even more so.
Even while admitting the survey results are disconcerting, the sample population for the 12th grader survey is 91. The margin of error and confidence level on such a small sample casts doubt on making assumptions that these results are representative of the entire population.
Still, one works with the data one has, and I agree that the Board of Health should be paying attention to local health issues rather than international issues over which it has no control.
The survey asks students to report if they themselves have considered suicide. It is not like an opinion poll of a sample that is extrapolated to make statements about a larger population. Of the ninety-one 12th graders who participated in the survey, for instance 83% of them reported uncontrollable anxiety and nineteen 10th grade students, 13% of the 145 who participated, reported they had attempted suicide. I don’t know for sure, but it seems that most or almost all students in those grades participated in the survey.
The JeffCo Board of Health is much too preoccupied, at present, trying to create justification for forcing county residents back into their useless face masks than to investigate the reasons why school kids are feeling such pain in their lives.
I remember surveys like this when I was in school, 50+ years ago. Many students treated them as a joke and didn’t answer truthfully. The same when the military recruiter visited. It was fashionable for young people to mock authority. I don’t think that has changed. Do you?
I think it would be irresponsible to so glibly dismiss what high schoolers are telling us. This survey has been considered quite reliable for years. Also, I don’t remember that suicide was such a crisis 50 years ago that a quarter of high schoolers were reporting they wanted to kill themselves. We do have a suicide crisis and mental health crisis in this county. Last week, another young man tried to kill himself by hanging. The article references ER doctors reporting seeing more suicide attempts. We cannot close our eyes to the pain in our young people on the basis of nostalgic memories of a more innocent time that is no longer reality.
Well said Jim.
It’s really bad and it’s been really bad in Port Townsend for a long, long time. Lockdowns sure didn’t help. The worst part if the overall denial from the general public and the complete indifference from our local leaders. “The opposite of love is not hatred, it’s indifference.”
“Use of medications or other poisons to attempt suicide or self-harm are rising among youths as young as 9, and the largest increases are among those ages 10-12.” Excerpt from above article.
As our children reach the completion of their high school education, ask yourself what do they have to look forward to? What is the state of the world and what part of this social world do they look towards as a path for their freedom to be all that they can be? They are now part of a virtual world that tells them what to think, how to feel and how to see themselves in relationship to others. Freedom to be all that they can be is an ideal that has no place in a world that undermines the essence of what freedom is. They see and feel the social pressure under which their parents must conform and that is what they see as the actuality of what their life will become. The excitement of not knowing what might happen is replaced with conformity as security against an unstable and fearful world.
Our children see and feel the crisis du jour, as projected by our national and local politicians, as an unseen “lethal virus”, a world that stands at the brink of nuclear war, an economy and supply chain quickly breaking down, and as an AI generated surveillance virtual world that has become a Pied Piper to our youth. Relationships mostly take place over the internet, as the feeling of isolation and alienation grows. Technology is both the enemy and the perceived savior to our youth and they have about as much insight into how a human being fits into such a world as do their parents. It is not that difficult to then understand why 16% had no adult to turn to when they felt sad or hopeless.
The last 2+ years of a propagandized unrelenting “health risk”, plus economic and cultural breakdown have formed a society that is in free fall PTSD. The main winner is big Pharma which gets us from birth, through life and even up to death. We don’t need more medications or empty promises of security. We need adults who are willing to speak the truth to our children and to tell and show them how to be that light unto themselves. That takes courage, compassion and love. Children learn through mentoring. What we adults show them speaks so much louder than our words. It takes a village of enlightened and courageous adults to stop this downward spiral of psychopathology.
The two most important human attributes that are being neglected by both us adults and thus our children are a healthy self esteem and our ability to think coherently. When our politicians, teachers, and health authorities are unable to do this and just follow the published narrative, how are our children going to ever find their way through fear to autonomy?
I find this entire post laughable at best
Dear Bill Me Later (aka Big Time Hater email address): Are you in high school? The callous, almost boastful indifference in your comment speaks of someone who may be hurting themself, projecting indifference to cover up real pain. Just know you are loved. Don’t write off yourself or anyone else. Stick around.
Well said!
Now ask the rest of the city.
The results of this survey do not surprise me, given the ‘adults’ that surround these students are, for the most part, Godless leftists who try to force Communism and transsexuality down the throats of these young folks. Not to mention a national scene dominated by nonsense like man-made Climate Change, not to mention such real dangers as rampant inflation, food shortages, a treasonous national government, additional pandemics and forced inoculations with dangerous experimental ‘vaccines’. Coming of age in the late 1960’s like I did was difficult, but many (most?) of us had the stability of being surrounded by patriotic, Christian parents, grandparents and other adults who had endured the depression and survived (and won) World War Two.
While our Board of Health ignores it, the medical/mental health community has been aware of this increasing crisis for years. When lockdowns were imposed, suicidal ideation, suicide attempts and successful suicides skyrocketed in general, but especially among youth. A mental health professional at JHC who I spoke with when doing research for a 2021 article (the year the survey covers) told me that the number of children and teens going to the ER resulting from depression leading to suicidal ideation or attempted suicide was alarming. In just that week when we talked there had been several youth in our hospital’s ER who were so despondent they wanted to end their lives.
To rwroosa who dismisses the survey results as joking kids mocking authority, I doubt that a suicide attempt ending up in the ER is anyone’s idea of a gag. And Jeffco kids reporting more bullying here than the statewide average — is that because our local youth are more prone to gaming a survey than kids in other counties? As Jim and others have said, this is no joke.
Jim, thank you for this report. I reviewed the results of this 2021 Healthy Youth Survey several weeks ago. The information in this survey along with test results in the Washington State Report Card (https://washingtonstatereportcard.ospi.k12.wa.us/ReportCard/ViewSchoolOrDistrict/100203) paint a picture of a society that has cared little for its children and is now seeing the results.
Along with the appalling suicide data that your article pointed out, the survey notes marijuana use among Jefferson County students that starts from 1% in 6th graders up to 36% in 12th graders. Alcohol use going from 4% in 6th grade to 34% in 12th grade. Rates of use that seem remarkably stable over the last nine years of the survey data.
A look at how schools are preparing our children from the Washington State Report Card, shows that in Fall of 2021 only 31% of students tested in the Port Townsend School District met state Math Standards. This is down from ~44% in prior years. (Covid-19 lockdowns policies had impacts both on the education and mental health of our children.) Other school districts in the county performed even worse. Yet even the ~44% meeting standards of prior years means that ~56% were not meeting State math standards. In a high-tech world economy, and in a state and country where science, statistics and economic issues dominate political policy, this is irresponsible.
There are many policies in our county, state, and nation that are harmful to our youth and therefore to our future: minimum wage, open borders, legalized marijuana, H-1B Visas, outsourcing manufacturing, school loans, critical race theory and gender theory promoted in school, popular culture and society, and on and on.
We have a lot to do to overcome the harm being done to our youth and future. Political policy changes will take time. The ignorance and/or reluctance of the county Board of Health to even discuss the issue points to how much we must overcome from a political and policy standpoint.
My hope lies with homeschooling. While not easy, there is no better way to start to improve the lives of our youth.
Anyone wondering where the voices of those being discussed are? Perhaps if we who seem to be village elders are feeling unheard and left out, so too are our village children. Probably more so.
I would point out once again that Fort Worden had so much potential as a place to teach and work with young and old, inclusively. Skills, marketing skills and building a brand worth coming to see. It became instead exclusive and failed. “New” old faces are still in control of the re boot of failed vision. There and elsewhere.
So much potential. So many different areas to work on. Same faces and same talent or lack of it don’t seem to be working. Here and elsewhere.
Sorry kids. What do you think? Might as well ask those we talk about. Do any young’uns read the Free Press or similar?
Meanwhile our elected officials are busy teaching kids about how there is no democracy at all in Port Townsend. The kids are suicidal and turning to chemicals for relief, but hey, no one can idle their cars anymore so YAY we have a future! Thanks, PT City Council!
Harvey, I think the young’uns made their voices heard in the survey. The real question is: Is any adult listening?
It’s almost like people in positions of power and authority in Port Townsend put out surveys just for their own entertainment. They seem to read them. They just never act on them in relation to what was said in the surveys. Seems mostly like a total waste of time. Especially since most of the liberals around here like to say that conservatives only care about children “before they are out of the womb”. WELP…??? ??? ???
Perhaps as with Main Street surveys, a little more depth and understanding behind broad questions could be had.
Most importantly is not to objectify young individuals, or anyone, and seek to talk with as many different people of all ages that one can. Openly.
More than most I think I meet and talk with younger people, and those of all ages and backgrounds in an atmosphere where many drop their masks or fronts or facades and really share ideas and realities with me.
One of the issues with what I do is losing aging artisans from redwood country to Oregon myrtlewood country and locally who have and still make good livings. Their children very seldom follow in parent’s footsteps. They and their individual businesses and skills just fade away.
As a result, I began handling native American art and found that especially on Vancouver Island that older successful artisans seek to be and are sought to be teachers and role models. I discovered younger artisans with strong tribal and cultural ties that are given hope and the chance to shine. Of course, others have the same problems as youth here. Perhaps mentors in many areas are needed, sometimes as surrogate family just to give hope and some balance.
Perhaps. But how?
It amazes me to see this working with some tribes. Culture is maintained and elders and ancestors honored. It is the vision I had for Fort Worden as the FWPDA was forming, and what I called “The Crossroads” where young and old mixed freely and shared skills and needs. The root of it was inclusive, not exclusive. It could have self-funded and found willing patrons as success grew. It is the business model I have which has grown and is financially successful and sustainable. I could have scaled up and diversified at Fort Worden.
The idea was at the last minute taken and thrown together as Makers Square, which I think so far has cost around 14 million dollars. Past PT City Manager and now Executive Director of the FWPDA Timmons now says it is poorly designed and executed. It had no real vision or soul. The degree of waste and mismanagement is just now coming to light. With accounting problems that were inevitable with the players involved.
No soul. No hard work. Public dime.
They are a dark tribe of their own, suffering from the wetiko virus. Research that.
No firm answer here, just some observations. Don’t objectify. Specific captains of our specific little ship have and are still leading us astray. We elders feel it. Our children and grandchildren inherit our failures. They are forced to feel it.
To live it.
I know well some who say there is no future anyway. Might as well get on with the business of trying to do positive things.
Nothing to lose.
Makers Square. FWPDA. Appointed Mayors. Unqualified City Managers. City Council I have seen up close fail to grasp basics.
Why are the children so sad?
Harvey asks, “Why are the children so sad?” According to Cheech and Chong, whose comments are below, it is because people are not getting enough cannabis.
And such silliness is precisely why Port Townsend’s young folks are having major problems finding purpose in their lives. Port Townsend’s ‘adults’, and especially those involved in community government and public education, are simply clueless.
The diatribes against cannabis are ridiculous. There are plenty of us on the right who disagree with your cannabis hot-takes.
In the same way we tell the libs if they don’t like religion then don’t go to church, if you don’t like cannabis don’t use it. There are plenty of conservatives especially we on the younger
side of the scale, who do not share your reefer madness.
Mike, the article is about teen mental health and suicide. Not cannabis. There are other fact sheets in the Healthy Youth Survey on cannabis usage. It is very high among 12th graders in Jefferson County, a cause for great concern.
Yawn. We who are young are very clear on the fact that our bodies are happily shipped off to be fodder when we are 18, but we are not allowed to drink alcohol or smoke cannabis.
We are not the youth of your past. We did not live your history. We have not dealt with the same challenges you dealt with as children. We will take care of ourselves and one another, and we will continue using cannabis as we do so. We don’t need your preaching. It doesn’t help us.
Matt B. What is the “preaching”? Reporting on the fact sheets in the Healthy Youth Survey? Those facts are what they are. And, please, drop the false drama. You are not being drafted into the military at age 18. There has been no compulsory draft in half a century.
Thank you for this necessary and thought-provoking article, Jim.
I was hoping to find a question in the survey that asked students which prescription drugs they are taking. Click on the misleading title “Prescription Medication Use” and you will find a fact sheet for “Teen Prescription Misuse for Jefferson County in 2021.”
How many of these perpetually anxious and sad youth are on legally prescribed psychostimulants, antidepressants or antipsychotic “medications,” which the Seattle Times reporter frankly admits are “other poisons”? The so-called Healthy Youth Survey conveniently avoids asking that essential question. All of these pharma products increase suicidal ideation.
The typical hormone-laden teen years brimming with emotions of sadness, anxiety and isolation are nothing new in western culture. What is somewhat new is widespread drugging of our children, and the reality that functional adults with an ounce of courage and critical thinking capacity are just about nowhere to be found in these kids’ orbits.
The dominant ideology of this community and its ‘leaders’ rewards conformity and shames individuality. We’re captive to a stultified adult population bound by woke isms and ists; snowflakes waiting for the next offense or oppression to come along and psychically melt them into outrage or paralysis.
The youth suffer deeply from a dearth of mature and well-developed elders and people in positions of power in our schools and other institutions.
How many of these kids were shown early the meaning and value of both work and education, as opposed to “just hanging”? Any summer or weekend jobs for 12-16 year-olds doing yardwork, pet-sitting or other things demanding a bit of reliability and accountability, developing not only some income but pride in accomplishments and new knowledge? After earning an allowance each week at home since 1st Grade taking out the trash, pulling weeds etc. I got a paper route (you could DuckDuckGo that if you’re not sure, kids) at about 14 that delivered 6 days a week, Sunday morning (up at 5am to start folding them) and weekday afternoons, and was never without employment after that, working during the school years and full-time in summers.
Worked McDonalds for 2.5 years during high school, early evenings after the 45-min city bus ride home from school and opening shifts weekends (yep, 5am wakeup again to do the opening prep shift) – say what you will about the cuisine, but they taught me systems and how to think in ways I still use today. After my first year of engineering school, I got to help design and build satellites each summer until graduation, then it was off to the races, until selling my last company to retire early a few decades later. I created one single resume in my entire life, after graduating engineering school – after that, I was either recruited by other organizations to join them, or created my own job at my own companies. Slacking on drugs, much less suicide, never occurred to any of us back then – we were working hard, playing hard and enjoying the hell out of life.
Now, a bit of perspective of what young people can achieve when they’re not pampered and coddled, facing real life tests and existential threats. I think it’s entirely possible that similar challenges will return as the world we’ve grown up in after Bretton Woods is upended. Check this out…….
Many of our nation’s Founders were in their 20s in 1776:
James Monroe, 18
Aaron Burr, 20
John Marshall, 20
Alexander Hamilton, 21 (surprisingly, a White guy!)
James Madison, 25
Benjamin Rush, 30
John Jay, 30
Thomas Jefferson, 33
Thomas Paine: 39
Life is to be lived, kiddies, so sack up, pay attention, learn things and don’t devolve.
My background and beliefs, too, Jim.
Everyone move aside! One of the boomers who helped generate this absurdist hellscape suddenly has the answer on how to fix it!
Annette, the question of prescription drug use in teens is so central to this discussion but like you, I do not hear it enter into the conversation. In 2015, researchers from Oxford and the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm did a study on over 800,000 Swedish people that showed a direct link between SSRIs—the most commonly prescribed antidepressant—and violence in young adults, principally in young men 15-24- those critical years of brain development. In the FDA database, 31 mostly psychotropic drugs—nearly half of which are antidepressants— make up nearly 80 precent of all cases of violence against others, The link between antidepressants and suicidal ideation is well known. According to the CDC, in 2013, 35 percent of suicide deaths tested positive for antidepressants. The list of mass shooting incidents involving young men in their teens to early 20s who were also taking some type of SSRI and/or drugs for ADHD is exhaustive and exhausting, but MSM does not report on this. I am one hundred percent in favor of sensible gun legislation, but that is only a part of the story. But moving back from the extreme of gun violence is the mass overprescribing of mood-altering, brain chemistry manipulating drugs to young people. Their ability to cope, to become resilient, to perceive and process clearly, is being destroyed. Is it any wonder they feel hopeless?
AJ, thank you for your mention of the parallel uptick in drug-induced tendencies toward violence. I’d neglected that element in my focus on self-harm.
First thing kids do in the morning is check their text messages and social media. Instead of breakfast with parents, Mom is busy getting ready for work while dad is MIA with a girlfriend somewhere. Instead of studying in class, Junior sneaks peeks at his phone. His peers do the same. Many cannot even tell what the lesson was about when the bell rings. When they go home after school, they hole up in their room to “study”, which means more texting and social media. At dinner, instead of talking about the day with Mom and siblings, Junior is glued to his cellphone between bites. After dinner, he plays some violent shoot-em-up games that feature bloody reality and substitution of photos of teachers, parents and others that the kids don’t like. A few more texts, then a bit of sleep. Cycle repeats the next day. Grades are dismal because of no attention to the curriculum.
So, instead of being taught morals, respect, integrity, too many kids are– essentially– being raised by their peers. Parents have nothing interesting to say and are only useful for rides and money. Kids tune out their parents and teachers, so all their values come from peers and garbage on television, social media, and video games. Then, we have kids who commit heinous acts, as have been in the news, and/or are into drugs and despair. I think that 90+% of it is insufficient parental involvement and excessive influence from text messaging and social apps.
My 11-yr old grandson is the only kid in his class who does not have a cell phone, and he isn’t likely to get one any time soon, according to his parents. Tell me, why do 11-yr old kids need cell phones? What is the matter with parents who buy cell phones for 11-yr old kids? QW, you accurately described what the kids use their phones for. Why would any parent contribute to such idiocy?
Clallam county opportunities to serve from peninsula daily news
https://www.peninsuladailynews.com/news/clallam-county-seeking-volunteers-for-boards-commissions/
Also, stop using teenagers as political football. It’s stupid.
Nobody is using teenagers as “political football” in this post or the comments. Unless you consider simply bringing these facts to light a political act because it may reveal something about elected officials and their actions.
Jim Lovitt, I hope you’re not afraid of a little hard work and responsibility – are you? See if you hold the same beliefs next time you hire a PTHS pending-graduate 17-year-old who has to be shown how a standard hose twist-nozzle works. He didn’t even make a tentative effort to figure it out on his own. Fortunately, most kids aren’t the offspring of decrepit old hippies, or mankind would be extinct in another generation or two.
I don’t know if I helped generate “this absurdist hellscape” (doubt it, because I don’t live it), but I did generate quite a few first “real” jobs for young people and when in high-tech was never afraid of mentoring somebody who just might end up smarter than me.
it’s all about instant satisfaction and school systems that have done away with American flag and pledge of allegiance. When I was in the 8th grade we had to outline the Constitution, one of the hardest things at that time. Some classes are preparing students for the new things that come out and will need people who can fix them. It’s a changing world and as I feel not for the better. The days of socializing at school face to face are over. I graduated from PT in 1961, I had many friends and we did many things. There were no drugs, cell phones or Facebook etc. Jobs were taken away from us later after the State came up with Child Labor Laws. There wasn’t any more strawberry picking a multitude of other jobs for Kids. I had a Newspaper route, sold TV guides, baby sat, mowed lawns, sold what ever was in season like blackberries and plums collected bottles by the road and turned them in for money. If you did anything wrong like buying a contraceptive, your Mother would know about it before you got home. It was a great time to be a kid. We made mistakes and sometimes got hurt. That’s how we learned. I feel sorry for these kids now. They’re missing what should be the best things in their life. The problem isn’t the kids. The problem is the parents. Parents need to take over the old ways, it worked.
The survey results are alarming and require action that helps young people see a promising future. Action should come from government, the schools, taxpayers, parents and the community.
Above all, the grownups should listen to the young people. In general, kids feel better about themselves and their futures when they feel they have choices and agency in the issues that affect their lives, when they can see the usefulness and necessity of school, when they see real opportunities, when they feel connected to their communities, and when they have responsible, interesting recreation. And a lot more.
Schools, the city and county need to provide year-around activities that connect students to their communities, offer relevant job skills, provide recreation and service opportunities, teach healthy living habits like exercise, sports and outdoor activities, promote tech skills, facilitate development of the arts, and teach community organizing and civic involvement. That means money, money and more money. School bonds. Taxes. New facilities.
Existing programs – and there are some excellent ones here in Port Townsend – obviously are not enough. A sampling of what is possible from what other communities have done seems impossibly expensive, but these kinds of programs have worked.
There could be a student radio station and a state-of-the-art recording studio where kids can generate and play music relevant to them. At the very least, KPTZ should open up time for student DJs in prime evening hours.
Student video production, film-making, multimedia skills, publishing, writing and could be facilitated by the local arts communities.
A youth film festival would be a great draw for local aspiring artists. So would a short story writing competition – local, regional or statewide – judged by this area’s leading authors and writers, coordinated through the schools.
Poetry slams for young people should be regular events at venues around town.
There should be annual installations of student art at the town’s galleries and showplaces, curated and judged by committees that feature students. Young artists have loudly complained about what they see as a stultified arts scene here – see the most recent issue of Strait Up.
The school boards should include student representatives elected by the students that have votes equal to adult board members.
There should be abundant activities at the community center, YMCA and other facilities. Sports leagues should be organized on an inclusive basis.
The school gyms should be open all year and supervised into late evening hours.
An eclectic and diverse mix of rigorous classes should be offered through the schools and Peninsula College all summer – for free, and for credit. By accredited teachers. They could be credit-retrieval classes for kids who failed a class needed for graduation.
Every school should have enough counselors, a psychologist, school nurse, and other support staff.to help identify kids at risk and make sure they are connected with needed support. Teachers should have a prep period beyond their normal planning period, dedicated to collaboration with other teachers, so curriculum can be integrated, skill instruction coordinated, and goals and objectives aligned. Teachers would also collaborate to reach at-risk students. Kids have to see a purpose for themselves in school.
Curriculum should be inclusive, honest, rigorous, antiracist and useful, both for kids who aspire to universities and those who aim for careers in the trades.
Private industry must be a part of this effort. Businesses, especially the local maritime industry, should increase opportunities for internships, apprenticeships and other training to attract young people.
Young people also feel better when the future looks livable. It just doesn’t, to many of them. Right wing extremists are shouting about civil war, and actually murdering nonwhite people. Maniacs with powerful rifles are slaughtering students in schools, and the grown-ups who should be protecting kids are instead kissing up to pro-gun extremists. Ignorance and prejudice seem to trump knowledge and science. Pun intended. Women and their rights have become a target of a radicalized Supreme Court. Climate change seems hopeless to resist or reverse. The Supreme Court is radicalizing against human privacy. Everybody is screaming at one another, and there’s a gun at the end of every raw nerve in society.
Now there’s a brutal war of naked aggression in Ukraine. And the good guys are not winning.
Violence and despair increase in general society, including schools, during times of war. The value of human life decreases. Kids can read, and they know what’s going on.
What are we asking young people to feel good about? Pessimism is a logical, rational conclusion if you add up the challenges that face these young people as they emerge from childhood. To help them face the world we’re offering them, they will need sophisticated critical thinking skills and knowledge of how they can make a positive difference in this sorry planet.
The above laundry list is extensive and unrealistic. Some things are being done already, to an extent. But if a society’s priorities are sane, this is work that is worlds more important than saving or cutting poplars. Right with you there, Mr. Scarantino.
By the way, the statistics that are most worrisome are of course those concerning self-harm. That’s appalling and unacceptable. I’m not as worried about students reporting anxiety. That’s serious but also adolescence, to a degree – and a rational response to the world they live in. It certainly shows they are paying attention.